


Still A Punchable Jackass

by Nyxxie



Series: Adams [3]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Argumentative assholes, Bad coping mechanisms, Canon-Typical Substance Abuse, Canon-Typical Violence, Drinking while Concussed, Gen, Light Angst, Nora’s Got a Potty Mouth, Past Character Death, Snark, Tags Are Hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 19:57:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21343882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyxxie/pseuds/Nyxxie
Summary: Nora gets the shit beat out of her while she's alone.The guy who saves her life is one of the last people she expected to see.
Relationships: Female Sole Survivor and OC
Series: Adams [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1361962
Kudos: 2





	Still A Punchable Jackass

**Author's Note:**

> I struggled with this a bit, and I'm posting it at like 3AM my time, so it may not be as polished as I'd like but hey. It's there.   
The stories in this series are in no particular order as of yet. They're a lot of snippets, so while the first two are kinda in order this one takes place a bitsy bob later in both Nora's story and the events of the game.

Nora staggered into Hangman’s Alley, her limp back with a vengeance and blood pouring out of a wound in her head, blinding her in one eye.   
The settlers recognized the blood spattered Vault suit and let her in, one of them rushing to help her as she fell through the door.   
“Get the Doc, Nelly! She’s hurt bad!” The guy holding her said.   
“Just a stim.” Nora groaned.   
“You’re gonna need more than a stim!” He said. “What hit you, a super mutant?”  
“Ngh. Four.” She corrected, her world swimming. She’d been alone, heading out of town for home when the group of mutants had crossed her path. One of them, a big fucker even by their standards, had got a lucky hit in with a board. She probably had a concussion, or something. Lucky she wasn’t dead. Lucky she’d taken a dose of PsychoBuff at the start and scurried away like a Radroach towards cover, where they couldn’t follow. Nora wasn’t a small woman, but she could fit in places they couldn’t, hunkering down where they couldn’t reach, until a passing pack of Raiders had distracted them. At least she’d been close to a Minuteman Settlement when she’d nearly been killed.   
She fell, and the settler caught her before she hit the ground. The world was getting dark around the edges, and the fight ebbed out of her until all she could do was give in.  
\----  
Nora opened her eyes, immediately aware she wasn’t at home, or anywhere familiar. All she smelt was brahmin shit, and the ceiling overhead was a combination of fabric and wood. The room looked like a doctors of some kind; the shelves on the walls and the counters were full of bottles and other medical supplies, and an scavenged IV was hooked up to her arm. She felt like a pack of super mutants had beat the shit out of her.   
Which was almost true.   
The Vaultie tried lifting her head up, and promptly regretted it, sinking back onto the straw pillow when her head practically screamed ‘fuck no’ at her.   
“Aw, fuck.” She groaned, her throat dry and voice rougher than usual.   
“You sound like shit, Elenora.”   
Her eyes widened. Slowly, she turned her head to look at the guy leaning in the door to the little lean to shack. A ghoul man, about average height, dressed casually under the off white coat he was wearing. It took her a moment to recognize the voice, the scratch of irradiation making it a bit of a challenge. Her chem and trauma addled brain suddenly placed it though. Noone called her Elenora, not anymore, and even when pre-Vault that list had been short. Dad, when he’d been alive, her sister and mother when she was in trouble, and-  
“Lou?”   
“Looking pretty smooth for a two-hundred year old woman.” He said driely. “I’d heard rumours, here and there, but you know how reliable scavver gossip is.”  
She sat up again, slower this time. Of all the people who had to survive the nukes, it had to be Lou. Fucking asshole, holier than thou, judgemental Lou, who’d been critical of Nora’s past service and security work and Nate’s journalism.   
“How in the absolute fuck?” Nora asked. “You were supposed to be in a Vault. You and Marie and Helen.”  
“I was at work when the bombs fell.” Said Lou. “Wasn’t enough time. Marie didn’t make it either.”   
The way he said it was so final. Nora had known that Marie and Helen and their mother were gone the minute she’d stepped out of that Vault. She’d more or less come to terms with it within the first couple of weeks before she’d run into Garvey, dealing with her ghosts. The only remnant of her old life was in an underground bunker full of child stealing fuckheads, or so she’d thought. There was another one, apparently right under her nose.   
She and MacCready had cleared this place out a while ago, back when she’d first run into the smaller merc, and she had only drifted through since.   
He was fiddling with her IV now, checking her over with professional ease.   
“How do you feel?” He asked.   
“Not great.” Said Nora. “But I’ve had worse. I’ll just take something.”  
“Chems?” He sniffed. “They aren’t the solution to everything, Elenora. You’ll end up addicted, and-”  
“I’ve been surviving fine, Lou. I know my limits.” She said brusquely. “I’ve got to. There’s people who need me functional.”  
“You look like hell, Elenora.” He said. Infuriatingly mild and smug.   
“Yeah, and what do you look like, Lou Jamison? It's not like the end of the world was forgiving for anyone but the dead. You got anything to drink?”  
“You’re not drinking right now.” He told her.   
She snorted, swinging her legs off the bed and making her way unsteadily to the door. “Stop me then.”  
“Elenora-”  
“Lou, I have earned a goddamn drink today. Stop nagging me like a great-aunt and join me or don’t.”  
“Where are you planning on getting said drink?” He asked driely. “The closest thing we have to a bar is Thomas. He sells chems behind the Brahmin corral.”  
“He sell alcohol?” Nora asked.   
“Probably.”  
“Close enough.” She said, staggering outside.   
It took her ten minutes to find Thomas. He was, in fact, behind the corral, stoned out of his mind. And he did in fact have a bottle of moonshine, which he parted with a grin and a wave, taking far less caps for it than it was probably worth.   
She almost didn’t go back to the clinic. She took in a bit of what the settlers had managed to build since she’d cleared the raiders out. It was a smaller settlement, huddled in the middle of mutant and raider infested territory. They all seemed pretty hardened, and Nora wondered if some of them were ex-Raiders themselves.   
One of them seemed to recognise her from earlier, waving near a cooking pit.   
“You’re up! Looks like Doc worked his magic! How you feel, Vaultie?”   
Nora nodded, walking over to the man. “Felt better. You the one who dragged my ass in?”  
“Oh yeah.” He said. “Names Frankie. Glad Doc could get to you in time. Not every day we get a famous person such as yourself in here.”  
Ah yes. Famous, thanks to Piper’s reporting and the Minutemen using her skills to clean up the commonwealth. It was disconcerting to be recognised by reputation.   
“Thanks.” She said. “Call me Nora.”  
“Not a problem!” He said, grinning. “Glad to see you up and about, Nora! You heading back to the Docs?”  
“Yeah.” She said. After a moment, she thought of something. “Hey, how long has the doctor been here?”  
“Oh, almost as long as me. Two months? Apparently he got kicked outta his last settlement, suddenly got anti-ghoul around there.” Frankie shook his head, looking genuinely pissed off. “Their loss though, he’s one of the best fuckin’ doctors I’ve ever met. Bit of a dick sometimes, though.”  
A nearby woman overheard him and laughed. “Bit of a dick! Frankie, you ain’t usually one for understatement.”   
“Nobody asked you, Nelly!” Frankie retorted. The woman laughed loudly, going back to repairing a detached door. The man rolled his eyes.   
By the time Nora made it back to the clinic, Lou was sitting at one of the tables, going over notes. He didn’t seem to notice her until she sat down on the cot.  
“You got any cups?” she asked.   
Her brother-in-law whirled, eyes wide. He relaxed into a scowl the minute he saw her. “I take it you found your booze, then.” He drew out ‘booze’ derisively, fixing her with a disapproving glare.   
“I did.” She grabbed a clean looking beaker, pouring some of the moonshine inside and sniffing it. “Could use this in the clinic, Lou.”  
He snorted. “You almost died today, El- Nora. Please don’t poison yourself in my clinic, I have hard enough time cleaning it as it is.”   
Huh. That was unexpected.   
She sat the beaker down next to him, grabbing him another one. “We could always make the clean-up someone else's problem.”  
He looked at the beaker dully, before sighing. “What the hell, inventory can wait. How much more damage can I do to my body?”  
“There you go, Lou!” she said.   
He glared at her, before sipping it and then choking.   
“The fuck did Thomas give you! This is swill.” He exclaimed.   
“I told you.” Nora said. “Unless you have something better lying around.”  
“No.” He said. He sipped it again and pulled a face. Nora chuckled humorlessly.  
“When I found out about ghouls, I was worried about this. Coming across someone I knew.” The scarred woman said. “Never expected you, though.”  
“Could say the same.” Lou said. “And smooth no less. Don’t look any different from the last day I saw you.”  
“Dinner at Mum’s.” Said Nora. “You were making jabs at Nate’s article on the treatment of traumatized veterans.”  
Lou nodded. “Right. Marie chewed me out for that one. All the way home, said if inaccuracies bothered me so much then I should help him.” He sighed, looking wistful, before tucking into the drink with a bit more gusto. “Fuck, I miss her.”  
“Me too.” Said Nora. “Mom, Nate-“  
“Didn’t make it to the Vault?” Lou asked.  
“No. We did. Someone came and killed him later. Took Shaun.” She said. “It was a cryogenics facility. Straight out of a science fiction novel. Apparently I’ve been asleep for two hundred years. They woke us up. Nate had Shaun.”  
She poured herself some more, more than before, to steady her hands. “They shot him. Then they put me under again. Next time I woke up, I was the only living soul in there.”  
Lou was quiet. He sipped his drink thoughtfully, his face scrunched up. It was weird without his eyebrows, or hair in general. Lou had always looked after his hair, the peacocking he did frequently grating on Nora’s nerves.   
“I was at the hospital.” Lou said. “Marie and Helen were home. I couldn't get out of work fast enough. There was panic, everywhere. I didn’t get home until after the bombs fell.”  
He took a big swig, pulling another face.   
“Fine pair, aren’t we?” Nora asked bitterly, watching him glare at the moonshine irritably.   
Lou grunted. He sat down on his rickety chair and put the glass on the tabletop, leaning forward. “You’ve done well, from what I’ve heard. Working for the minutemen. Cleaning up the Commonwealth.”  
“Shaun’s still alive.” Nora said. “When I get him back, I want a safe place for him. I failed him once already.”  
The ghoul man hummed. “How nice, that you get a second chance.”  
Nora felt a bit like an ass. From other old ghouls she’d met, like Daisy and Kent, these past two hundred years had been some kind of Hell. You lose your loved ones. You lose yourself. You lose the world you knew, and were forced to survive and adapt to a newer, crueler place. A world where suddenly you were ‘Other’, a monster on the edge of turning on anyone around you.  
“You lived through it all.” Nora said. “God, I barely just woke up and the only thing that kept me alive was my experience in Anchorage and the fact I was pissed the fuck off. You hated fighting. But, you’re too stubborn to just give up. Even without Marie.”  
“She wouldn’t have wanted me to.” He Said.  
“You think your second chance is here, Lou?” Nora asked.   
“For now. I don’t hold out hope, smoothskin.” Lou said driely. “A few years from now, could get run out again.”  
“You could come home with me. Back to Sanctuary.” Said the Vaultie. “There’s good people there.”  
“There’s good people here too.” Said Lou. “They need me. For now.”  
She didn’t ask what would happen if they didn’t. Lou was a smart man.   
They veered off from the past a bit, drinking in silence. Nora watched him pour more moonshine into his glass, his expression stony.   
“You cleared this place out, right?” Lou asked finally.   
Nora nodded. “Didn’t expect anyone to set up shop though.”  
“It isn’t the nicest neighbourhood.” Lou agreed. “Not Sanctuary Hills by a long shot.”   
The woman snorted. “You moved here.”  
“Yeah.”   
“You made the choice.”  
“I fucking know I did, Elenora. I was there when it happened.” He grumbled. “God, I miss good whiskey.”  
——-  
Nora examined her head wound in the broken old shaving mirror Lou had handed her. The ghoul was sprawled out on his chair, regretting the moonshine and his choices the day before in general. Both of them had wicked hangovers, and it seemed the settlers in Hangman’s Alley were leaving them alone. Which was a good thing, probably.   
“How the fuck are you functioning?” He rasped, glaring at his sister-in-law with barely contained irritation.   
“I do this more often than you.” Nora said. She winced, moving her self exam from her head to her leg.   
“Another scar for the collection, eh, Elenora?” Lou asked, moving slightly so he could glare at her with bloodshot eyes.   
“Says the ghoul.” Nora sniped back, an old habit that came easy. God, he was an ass.  
“Yes. Says me.” He said. “I’m also going to add, that you cannot leave until I’m sure you’re not still fucked up.”  
“I’ve had worse.”  
“Yes. But we both know Garvey won’t discharge you like the Government did.” Said Lou.   
“I have people expecting me, Lou.” Nora stood up, resting her leg and wincing. Maybe the alcohol hadn’t been such a good idea.  
“And if you go out like this you might die.”  
“Pop another stim in me.” Nora said. “I’ll take some chems and power through.”  
“How the fuck are you still alive?” He asked, exasperated. “As your doctor-”  
“Not my doctor.” Said Nora, jabbing a finger in his direction.   
The ghoul sneered, glaring at her. If looks could kill, they’d both probably be dead. Lou threw his hands up, then winced when he smacked one on the desk next to him. “So blow your only chance to get your kid back, Elenora. Do it. I’ll be sure to inform the Minutemen their poster child is probably dead in a ditch somewhere.”  
“How are you still such a prick, Lou?” She snapped. The Vaultie glared at him, thinking about how two hundreds yyears had not decreased his punchability.   
But, he also wasn’t wrong. She sat down on the cot, flipping him off.  
“It’s a talent of mine.” He bit the words off aggressivly, before they sat for a while in silence. He leaned back, staring at the roof blankly.   
“The first person I see in hundreds of years that I know.” He says quietly. “And it had to one of the ones I came to blows with most.”  
“Yeah.” Nora agreed. “No Marie or Mom to pull us apart anymore.”  
He sighed. “We drank all that moonshine, didn’t we?”  
“Yup.”  
Another sigh, this one more tired than the last. “Of course. God, I can’t remember the last time I was hungover. Med School, maybe.”  
Nora remembered. She’d had a nasty one back in D.C, dying on Piper’s couch while the reporter had mercilessly teased her about the night before. She wasn’t about to tell Lou that, though.   
“Are you staying now?” He asked, still not leaving his chair.   
“Probably. Not for long though. I’ve gotta get home.” She said. “There’s people waiting for me.”  
“How nice.” He said flatly.   
Nora shrugged. “The offer to come with me still stands. You’re still kind of family.”  
More silence, this one stretching far longer than the last. It was true though. He was family. And Marie had loved him, enough that now that Nora knew he was alive she felt like she should help him. For her sister’s sake at least. He was mourning the same people she was. And from what she’d heard, Lou didn’t have people on his side. Not like Preston, Piper, Nicky and even Dogmeat were on her side.   
She just also really wanted to hit Lou, but the fact he was an abrasive jackass was not the important thing here. He’d been Marie’s abrasive jackass.   
He was quiet for a bit. Nora almost thought he was ignoring her, until he sat up, adjusting his posture gingerly. “I have a job here. But, should I feel that my time here is up, then I might take you up on that offer.”  
Nora nodded. “That’s fine by me.”  
“Great. Now stand up, my head’s killing me and I’d like to lie down for a bit.”


End file.
